Monte Carlo simulation of an antiferromagnetic Ising model at two competing temperatures.

Abstract

We consider a two-dimensional antiferromagnet Ising system interacting with a heat bath at temperature T. The dynamics of the system is simulated by two competing stochastic processes: the two-spin-exchange Kawasaki kinetics at temperature T>0 and the one-spin-flip Glauber dynamics at T(G)-->0(-), which mimics the increase of the energy of the system. These two processes have probabilities 1-p and p, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations were employed to determine the phase diagram for the stationary states of the model and the corresponding critical exponents. Contrary to the ferromagnetic case, the phase diagram obtained does not exhibit the phenomenon of self-organization: for any nonzero value of the competing parameter p, and for any value of T, the only stationary phase which remains is the ferromagnetic one. At the phase transition between the antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases, at p=0, the values found for the critical exponents agree with those of the corresponding equilibrium Ising model.